


War Changes

by Wasthatapun



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: AU, Warbots, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 12:36:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1106895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wasthatapun/pseuds/Wasthatapun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The thing about being classified as ‘equipment’, even if your human partner doesn’t see you that way, is that you really don’t get much say in what happens to you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	War Changes

**Author's Note:**

> Has to do with This http://was-that-a-fanfic.tumblr.com/post/34552329596/wartime-spg-au Au idea that mixes a number of other peoples AU’s including Bara and Xeno Spine. This took me so long to write you don’t even understand how much I hate it now. I’m posting this at 2 am so theres gonna be a lot of errors I’ll fix it all later.

It had been months since any of the Walter bots had been given leave and slightly longer since they’d last gotten to see each other. Hatchworth and Steve are the first to make it back to base, Steve handling what few repairs Hatchworth required within a half an hour, they’d had a blessedly uneventful assignment and there wasn’t much that needed repairing or prepping. Next was Sam and The Jon, who very nearly knocked Steve over as he attacked him with a hug on sight, Hatchworth was considerably harder to get off balance and simply caught his next oldest brother when he launched himself at the Heavy artillery modified automaton.

“Hey The Jon, how are you holding up.” Hatchworth chuckled as he carried the slightly smaller bot over to the couch and tossed him there. He bounced and sat up and excitedly began telling everything he could think of.

“Me ‘n Sam are doin just great Hatchy! We got back here with no troubles at all and there wasn’t any bad stuff we didn’t already know was coming the whole mission and I even saved this one guys leg it shouldn’t have worked but he was just fine and now he even gets to go home and he might even get there in time for his kid’s first birthday and everything!”

“That sounds great Jon,” Steve chuckled, wiping some oil off his hands he’d missed from earlier. 

The arrival of Rabbit and Paige was announced by the sound of their argument echoing down the hall and into the shared common room.

“It’s a simple fix Rabbit! It won’t even take me two minutes to get it done!”

Paige’s aggravated voice bounced into the room and they all watched the door with mild amusement as their voices grew closer.

“Nope, not happenin.” Rabbit on the other hand sounded calm and even a little cocky.

“You know I know where your shut down switch is right? I could just put you to sleep and do it anyway.”

“But then you’d have to deal with how upset I’d be when I came back online and we both know you wouldn’t be able to handle that.”

He looked so pleased with himself as he sauntered his way through the door, Paige a few steps behind him grumbling obscenities to herself as she adjusted the sniper rifle strapped over her shoulder.

“RABBIT!”

The Jon was up and attacking the clockwork automaton with a hug within seconds.

“Hey Tha Jon how ya doin buddy?”

Steve and Sam were trying to hide their laughter as Paige flopped herself onto the seat vacated by The Jon.

“So how’s the maintenance work goin there Paige?” Steve asked, barely containing his giggles.

The fact that Paige was the only one of the humans who had trouble with her so-called ‘equipment’ when it came to fixing malfunctions had become something of a running joke.

“Steve I will shoot you and nobody would be able to prove it was me,” she grumbled.

“What’s even wrong with him this time?” Sam asked, stretching out beside her and kicking his feet up on another chair.

She didn’t answer.

It took him a moment to realize he was sitting on her left.

He sighed and poked her, she looked mildly surprised. “Okay seriously you guys are the only people who know about that stop trying to talk to me on this side!”

“What’s wrong with Rabbit this time Paige.”

“*huff* something’s loose in his elbow so it keeps locking up and the idiot WON’T LET ME FIX IT.”

Rabbit pretended not to hear her and continued asking The Jon about his exciting time saving people’s lives, he had apparently not lost a single soul that was put in his care the entire mission which left Rabbit feeling relieved. The Jon had never been to well equip for handling death, especially if he felt he should have been able to do something to fix it.

“SERIOUSLY IT’S PROBABLY ONE GEAR OUT OF PLACE. I WILL HOLD YOU DOWN IF I HAVE TO.”

“Still not happening!” He sing-songed, rocking on his heals as he did so.

“I’d think your arm locking up would be a big deal, something like that happening on a mission? Would think that could get some people killed.” Sam said absently, toying with the food he’d brought from the commissary.

Rabbit shot him a dirty look and Paige threw her hands up in an exaggerated “THANK YOU!”

“You know, Sam kinda does have a point,” Jon muttered, Hatchworth nodding behind him.

Rabbit huffed, steam shooting from his vents and dramatically slouched over to his Sniper slash Mechanic, presenting her with his malfunctioning arm. “FINE! I hope you know you all suck.”

She didn’t argue, just got to work flipping a panel near his elbow open and getting to work tracking down whatever was causing the periodic freezes.

There were a few moments of quiet as they all enjoyed the peace, even Rabbit as he had his insides fiddled with and repositioned.

Finally it was Steve who broke the silence “Hey where’s your brother and Michael anyway guys? I saw some paperwork that said they should have been back before any of us.”

As if on cue Michael came shuffling through the door. He looked tired and somehow nervous even as he tried his best to fake his usual exuberant joy. 

“Hey guys heard you were back!”

The smile he flashed them was weak and false as he stayed somewhat by the door, glancing back over his shoulder as he shuffled in.

“Only just, how long have you guys been back?”

“Oh a, um, a couple days now…”

“Where’s The Spine Michael? I’ve missed him!”

The awkward forced smile was back and he glanced again at the door behind him shifting from one foot to the other.

“He’s…um…he’s comin.”

“Michael, Michael is something wrong? Did Tha Spine get hurt or somethin?”

“What?! Oh no Spine!!”

“NO! No, he didn’t get hurt we’re both perfectly fine, it’s just…”

Now even Steve, Sam, and Paige were looking at him worriedly.

“Just what? Michael you’re worrying us.”

It was spine’s deep baritone that answered from behind Michael

“There were some changes while you were gone, that’s all.”

They were all taken off guard by The Spine but The Jon actually let out a little gasp when he caught sight of his older brother leaning in the doorway.

He had his arm resting across the top of the door frame with his forehead resting against it. 

They’d all seen more than a few upgrades over the years but they tended to only have subtle aesthetic effects. Their appearances changing a little at a time as the years passed. Even with the more forceful upgrades they’d had foisted on them by the government at the start of the war. The idea of making some drastic change to their chassis was nearly unthinkable to any of them, which was what made this such a huge shock.

Even hunched over as he was to peer under the doorframe they could tell his height now settled somewhere just under nine feet,

“What did you let them do to you” Rabbits tone was sharp and biting, he’d never quite gotten over the upgrades that had been forced on him and as he began his pained rant about throwing away their pappy’s work Paige watched the titanium alloy titans face and it occurred to her she’d seen the look on his face before. On Rabbits face when they’d first met, when the pain and betrayal of the forced upgrades had still been fresh.

“Hey Rabbit!”

“What?!”

“How’s your stutter.” She tilted her head pointedly.

He blinked at her, confused, then realization dawned on his copper face. The loss of his stutter, the improvement of his eyesight, better range of motion in his limbs were all useful for a bot intended for communication but had all been done forcefully and completely against the copper automaton’s will. Part of the reason him and Paige had bonded so well when they’d first been assigned as partners was her complete and utter disgust with the military’s actions.

Steve turned to Michael, who was rather intently glaring down at his military issue boots, “What’s Paige getting at Michael?”

He bit his lip and wouldn’t look any of them in the eye, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly as he mumbled “They said it was gonna just be some routine maintenance, said it was no big deal then…”

“Oh Spine!” The Jon had pushed past Rabbit and rushed toward Spine, who had the sense to kneel so the now much smaller bot could launch himself up and wrap his arms around Spines neck.

The Spine looked nervous, staying perfectly still, hands down at his sides as if afraid he could make one wrong move and break his younger brother. After a moment he awkwardly patted The Jon’s back, as gently as he could manage.

“I’m alright The Jon; you don’t need to worry about me.”

“Well they’re all stupid head jerks so *mleh* to them” The golden medic bot insisted, sticking out his metal tongue and drawing a laugh from his (now much bigger) brother.

A grin spread on the bots face. “Hey,”

“Hey Spine.”

“Yes The Jon?”

“Stand up.”

The Spine raised a confused eyebrow. “O-kay?” and did as asked.

The Jon remained clinging to his neck and giggled as he was easily lifted into the air, his toes dangling a few inches off the ground.

“I bet I could ride on your shoulder easy!” he mused as he hopped back to the ground.

The Spine chuckled; glad at least The Jon was handling this whole thing rather well.

Rabbit sat quietly while the others watched Spine and Jon. It seemed with Jon’s approval everyone else had relaxed and was pretty much okay, if still a bit tossed at the idea that Spine was now nothing like they’d ever seen. The tension in the air started to drop, the conversations started to pick back up. And Rabbit sat, unnaturally quiet. 

Spine couldn’t fit in the tent anymore. He was huge; tall and wide in ways that none of them had ever meant to be. Screw what Pappy wanted, they weren’t ever programmed to be this large! The way Spine was handling Jon was proof enough of that. The Spine did not hesitate to return Jon’s affections, and yet there he was, holding back when Jon leaped at him. That wasn’t right.

Rabbit stood up suddenly, drawing everyone’s attention. Silently, steam huffing from him in large clouds, he stomped out of the door, brushing past Spine, and heading towards HQ. Paige and Steve exchanged glances before darting out after him.

“Just where do you think you’re going?!” Paige caught up quickly, getting in front of him and walking backwards as she spoke.

“Someone needs to fix this.”

“Oh and you think you’re the one to do it?” Steve was trotting along next to Rabbit, ready to grab him if he needed to do so.

“Yeah, I am. They can’t keep doin’ this to us. Upgrades, changes, that’s one thing. Not telling us? Forcing it on us? Making us into things we aren’t? They wouldn’t do this to humans. They can’t do this to us.”

“You don’t have much choice Rabbit.” Paige stopped, forcing Rabbit to pause a moment. Then he stepped around her and kept going. Steve grabbed his arm and stopped him short. He could pull away; he was a robot after all. He was stronger than the human. But then he’d hurt Steve. And that was the last thing he’d ever want to do.

“Rabbit listen to us. They have power over you that you don’t even realize. You like having your thought process and being able to make decisions?”

“Yes. And they have no ri-“

“They forced these upgrades onto you. They dug around in your brain to take your stutter away. How easy do you think it’ll be for them to force you down and take away what makes you tick?”

Rabbit had no answer for that. He thought, hard, on Steve’s words. Paige gently took his shoulder and turned him to face her. 

“Rabbit, why do you think I fight so hard to stay by you? I hate what they do to you guys. Michael didn’t want to face us, you saw that. Steve here would probably kill someone if they took HatchWorth away and did something like what they did to Spine on him.”

“She’s right.”

“So why did it happen.” It wasn’t a question. Steve couldn’t meet his eyes.

“Because we’re afraid to lose you.” Paige had the answer, again. And it was a good one. “I hate what they are doing to all of us. But we try. We try to keep it from happening as much as humanly possible. What do you think would happen to you without me huh? Think about it.”

She let that sink in a bit, before expanding, spelling it out for him exactly what would happen to him and his brothers should he keep going with his plan.

“You yell at them about Spine, I fight them too hard about your upgrades, and they take us away. And they put someone else with you. Someone who wants you to be upgraded as much as you can be. And will find a way to force it on you while you fight. And to keep you from fighting, they insist on taking away your sentience. Then where would you be? An empty shell doing what you’re told blindly while they pop on and off attachments like Lego blocks? And not just you, but The Jon, The Spine, and Hatchworth too.”

Rabbit was staring at his shoes now, shoulders sagging. He had a picture in his head of Jon being a blank murder machine. Going from helping people to poisoning them without so much as a blink of an eye. 

“And with you gone, they’d have no reason to put you back. Do you want that?”

“No.”

“Then you have to pick and choose your battles Rabbit. What they did to you, to Spine, it wasn’t right. But it’s a hell of a lot better than what they could have done. They put him in a new chassis. It’s stupid, it’s a bad thing, yes hate them. But at least they kept Spine there.” Steve tugged his arm lightly, back towards the others. “Come on. Enjoy what time we have to hang out okay? When this is over, when we all go home, it’ll all be fixed then. Okay?”

Rabbit nodded. And followed them back, still stewing, but no longer boiling. He’d get his chance. Later, when lives weren’t at stake. He’d get his two cents in. 

As they re-entered the tent there was a collective sigh. The Spine offered his older brother a relieved smile. 

“You had me worried there for a minute,” he admitted, offering a nervous smile.

“Nyeah I’m fine, boiler runnin’ a bit hot is all.”

“Gotta be honest, I was a bit worried you were going to go do something foolish,” Hatchworth pointed out, exchanging a look with Steve that said he knew that was exactly what almost happened. 

“Good thing you’ve got Paige to keep an eye on you huh Rabbit!” The Jon giggled, he came up beside her “You always do the best job!” 

She didn’t react until he patted her on the shoulder, which made her jump because she hadn’t seen him come up behind her, on her left. Her mostly deaf ear.

She turned to face him tilting her right ear toward him. “What did you say Jon?”

She was used to Rabbit sticking to her deaf side, warning her of any sounds she missed and covering for her.

“Paige how’s your ear doing? I haven’t had a look at it in a while. Here lemme see.” The Jon began worrying over her, his medical programming kicking in as he inspected the damaged ear.

“It’s Fine The Jon, really, it can wait there’s much more important things to - ow!” 

“Oops, sorry.” The Jon gave her an embarrassed smile as she glared at him.

“Well if you’d have just let one of the medics look at you when it first happened it probably would have healed by now and you wouldn’t have to put up with me now would you?” he huffed, the tip of one finger flipping up to become a penlight so he could peer into her ear.

“You know exactly why I couldn’t do that The Jo - ow!” she batted him away

“I think I can fix some more of the damage but it’ll sting, want me to numb it?”

She sighed, for all that she got after Rabbit to stay properly repaired she wasn’t much better.

“Yeah fine.” she gave in, holding her arm out.

A row of needles pushed themselves up in The Jon’s palm as he instead gently pressed his hand to the side of her head and she hissed as the anesthetic shot into her system.

“You know I never did get the story of just what happened to your ear Paige.” Steve spoke up as another of The Jon’s fingers opened to reveal more surgical instruments.

“It was… two missions?” Rabbit questioned

Page shook her head, causing The Jon to take hold of her shoulder to force her still “Three.”

“Three missions back, when we got caught in tha cross fire remember? I hadta go into no mans land? A mortar hit way too close and it ruptured her eardrum.”

“So why didn’t you go to the med tent? I’ve seen that happen to plenty of guys and its usually an easy fix.” Michael wondered aloud.

Paige had to push The Jon away as she snorted. 

“Really?!” She gave him a ridiculing glare. “They’d discharge me in a heartbeat if they found out about this, no, this stays between us and nobody else.”

She was starting to get wobbly from the anesthetic and it was easy to tell. The Jon gently pushed her toward the couch so he could continue working and for once her head was too fuzzy to protest.

Michael wiped a hand over his forehead, unknowingly spreading oil across it as he frowned at his work. He sighed, standing and working the kinks out of his back in one long stretch. He had to get the hang of maintaining The Spines new chassis before they got sent out on another mission but every time he’d get started his blood would boil as his thought would wander and he’d start thinking about the whole situation again.

He was glad The Spine wasn’t actually there as he lost his temper and tossed a wrench across the room, listening to the satisfying *clang* as it hit something on the opposite side of the room. Less than a week since these upgrades had been forced on him and he spent whatever time he could disconnect from his body. Little more than a mechanical head and spinal column skittering around on tiny legs that very closely resembled ribs. Finding any small quiet place he could to hide and pout.

Not that Michael could blame him.

“Nice throw.”

Michael spun around at the voice, feeling a bit relieved when he found it was only Sam.

“So how much trouble are you in?” Sam muttered. Michael didn’t look at him at first.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about”

Sam grinned knowingly at him. Michael sighed.

“I punched the head mechanic, got docked two months pay.”

“Worth it?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Where’s the rest of him?” Sam motioned toward the headless chassis.

“Not sure, he’s hiding around here somewhere He hasn’t exactly been…taking this well.”

Sam nodded slowly.

“Well if I woke up one day and found out somebody’d been messing around with my body without my permission I would be too.”

“Hey guys how ya doin?” Paige’s voice was light and airy and they turned to find her being supported by Rabbit, her rifle in his other hand as he grinned lightly. Her eyes were partially lidded as she muttered “We figured out whata do! Rabbit’s gonna mess with the big wigs comms!”

Sam and Michael exchanged dubious looks as Rabbit helped her over to her bunk. “No. listen, we won’t mess with anything bad just like requisitions. None of the asshole hot shots will get their coffee!”

She dropped onto the bed with a soft *whump* and grinned at them as they both looked at her oddly.

“The Jon has the good drugs.” She announced as she beamed at them.

“And hey, lookit!” She snapped her fingers next to her left ear and grinned. “I can hear that a little, The Jon thinks he can fix it all the way eventually!”

With that she turned over and snuggled the pillow happily.

They all burst out laughing.

Rabbit set her rifle beside her bunk and let out a sigh, steam clouding around him as he turned to inspect his brothers empty chassis.

“Either a ya know where tha li’l chest burster got off to?”

Michael didn’t answer, but glanced conspiratorially at the lockers.

The Spine had hidden himself in a duffel bag, burying under a uniform jacket and a few black t-shirts curled in as tight a coil as he could manage. He wriggled to bury himself a bit deeper as the locker door was opened and light flooded the tiny space.

“Good morning sunshine! Up for a stroll?” Rabbit quipped as he tugged the jacket aside.

The Spine grumbled, wriggling and burying himself deeper in Michael’s shirts. “No I’m really not, please leave me alone Rabbit.”

Had he the ability Rabbit would have wrinkled his nose. He concentrated and a subroutine activated in his speech processor.

“H-h-how bout you humour-our me huh?” Rabbit smiled as he extended an arm to the pouting pile.

That got The Spine’s attention. A pair of glowing green optics peeked up at him from the pile of black shirts to glare at him skeptically.

He huffed out a “Fine.” and crawled from his hiding place onto Rabbit’s arm, legs clicking as he went and tailbone wrapping around Rabbit’s wrist. 

“Thanks, N-never much fun to take a wal-alk alone.” The return of Rabbits stutter was strangely comforting, a subroutine created by Michael and Steve at Paige’s request. It had always been there from the very beginning of the bots lives and its absence was strangely disconcerting. Rabbit tended to turn it back on when he was trying to reassure one of his brothers (and periodically to annoy superior officers).

The Spine skittered his way up Rabbits arm, clinging to his shoulder and getting comfortable.

The air was cool and the moon waning, making their steam stand out like frozen breath as they went. For the first few minutes neither spoke, both unsure what to say and trying to enjoy this rare moment of peace they’d been allowed.

“I’m sorry.” 

The Spine was surprised when it was Rabbit who spoke first.

“For earlier. F-for lecturen ya. And fer st-st-stormin off like I did. I wasn’t thinkin.”

The Spine fidgeted, clicking his front ‘legs’ together as he thought over a response “I don’t blame you Rabbit. It was kind of a big thing to handle with no warning.”

Rabbit glanced at the partial bot perched on his shoulder, face plates arranging into an expression of worry. 

“And uhh, how are you handling all this Tha Spine?”

“I’m doing just fine.”

“Uh-huh. An-and thats why you were pouting in Michaels locker I’ll take it?”

“I wasn’t pouting.”

“S-sure ya weren’t. And ya din l-look the tiniest bit worried when Tha Jon was huggin you back there.”

The Spine turned away, flattening against Rabbits shoulder as he did so.

Another moment of silence passed. Rabbit kept walking, waiting patiently for Spine to speak first.

“There’s programing in place…or there’s supposed to be,” he finally started, voice halting and unsure as he admitted to something Rabbit suspected he had only barely admitted to himself. “to make sure I don’t use too much force, but I can’t…”

His tailbone un wrapped from Rabbits wrist and coiled a few more times around his upper arm, The Spine’s equivalent of pulling his knees to his chest in this form.

“I don’t know if I trust it. They want me on the front lines, going toe to toe with TANKS and then The Jon’s there and he’s so small now but its me who’s changed and I could just…CRUSH him without even meaning to.”

His optics dimmed sadly as he sighed a huff of steam.

“I never thought I’d miss those stupid spy upgrades,” he grumbled.

“Wel-ell at least some of ya stayed the same,” Rabbit offered, motioning to The Spine’s, well, spine. 

He looked down at himself, raising the front most of his rib like limbs “Yes how wonderful I still resemble a facehugger from a certain movie Michael just loves to bring up.”

“Y-You know he’s only teasin, and I can’t believe I‘m sayin this but trust it. E-even if it’s not perfect we’re made of tough-gh-gher stuff, we can handle you catchin up to a l-learnin curve.”

They were back at their tent now. Rabbit paused for a second, listening to the voices inside. It sounded like everyone was in there now.

“Y-you ready to hea-ead back in?” he asked gently.

The Spine shifted on his shoulder, sliding back down to wrap around his arm before turning to him and resolutely saying “Yeah, I think I’m good…” He paused, forelegs clicking again before adding “Thanks Rabbit.”

“A-A-anytime Tha Spine.” He concentrated and the stuttering subroutine clicked back off.

Steve, Sam, and Hatchworth were throwing darts inside, Sam offering a wave as they came in. Rabbit returned it as The Spine dropped off his other arm and skittered across the floor to his chassis. There was a series of clicks and whirrs as he reconnected and stood at his now much greater height.

“You guys have a nice walk?” Sam asked, missing the board completely and instead bouncing his dart off a metal chair.

“Oh yeah it was great, took in the sites and all that.” Rabbit quipped as he sat on the end of Paige’s bed. He paused when he looked to check on her.

“Uuuhhh, how long has she been…”

“Snuggling her sniper rifle?” Steve finished. “We’re not sure, but nobody can get up the courage to try and get it away from her. You’re welcome to try though.”

The Spine chuckled as Rabbit looked her over dubiously, her chin resting on the shoulder stock and her body curled around it, muttering softly in her sleep.

“Yeah, nah. I honestly think leaving her like that is the less dangerous option.” He finally decided, sending the others into yet more laughter.

“Where’s The Jon and Michael ?” The Spine asked, as if on cue the pair burst through the tent door giggling and tumbling over each other. Each clutching something to their chests.

“They were off causing trouble. What else?” Hatchworth answered, smiling down at the pair who were grinning proudly from ear to ear.

“I’m almost afraid to ask,” The Spine sighed as he effortlessly lifted them both back onto their feet. After a moment’s thought he decided Rabbit was right and he did need to trust his new programming so he snagged The Jon around the waist and held him under one arm like a child, much to The Jon’s amusement if his keening giggles proved anything. “But what have you two been up to?” he finished.

“We got the good stuff!” The Jon announced proudly, opening his arms and letting a surprising amount of very good chocolate spill onto the ground. Michael did the same, letting his haul of premium coffee go over the table with a cocky grin.

“We just thought everyone might be in need of a morale booster and that our ranking officers could spare some supplies for the cause.”

Steve inspected the contraband with a look of awe. “Won’t they make a big fuss about missing supplies though?”

“They would,” Michael started, gathering up the candies The Jon had dropped and depositing them by his pile on the table.

“If they were actually supposed to have any of it!” The Jon finished cheerfully, he was still hanging in The Spine’s grip and was now dangling partially upside down and seemed to be rather enjoying himself.

“Not bad.” Sam had to admit, taking one of the chocolate bars and tearing it open. 

The Jon was now hanging as far upside down as he could go, playing with his feet, when something seemed to occur to him and he began wriggling. Making little “Oh! Oh!” noises til he’d successfully wriggled himself free and fell to the ground with an *oof*

“You know you could have asked and I’d have let you down,” The Spine pointed out bemusedly.

The brass bot scrambled to get back to his feet, babbling excitedly “I still wanna see if I can sit on your shoulder can I try Spine huh, can I?!”

Rabbit snorted. Michael watched The Spine from the corner of his eye as he ate his candy bar, fully aware of the automaton’s fears regarding his new found strength.

For a moment The Spine looked unsure. His gaze flickering from his younger brother to his older only to be met with a reassuring smile and a nod. ‘Go ahead, you can do it.’

“Sure The Jon, why not,” he finally said as he kneeled.

The Jon let out a happy squeal and flung his arms around The Spine’s neck in another hug and this time he didn’t hesitate to return it. A wave of relief passing through him as nothing happened and The Jon remained unhurt.

He scooped the smaller bot up easily and deposited him on his shoulder, where he did indeed have no problem sitting comfortably and stood to his now considerable height.

“HAH! I can almost touch the top of the tent!” The Jon announced, attempting to do just that as The Spine kept a hand on his leg so he couldn’t try to stand up.

Steve had started a pot of coffee, Sam had pulled out a book and was eating a candy bar as he read, Paige was still fast asleep, Hatchworth and Michael had pulled out a deck of cards and were apparently playing a game of go fish, And Rabbit was sitting watching The Jon and The Spine and as he returned The Jon to the ground to many a complaint. The older bot got up from his seat and put a comforting hand on the other bot’s shoulder.

“See, what’d I tell ya?”

The Spine smiled and gave his older brother a hug which Rabbit happily returned.

“Don’t you worry Tha Spine, we’re gonna be just fine.”


End file.
